The Agadi State Farm is one instrument to develop the so-far
unused, semi-arid land areas in the Blue Nile region. It is part
of the Damazin area and has cracking clay soils which are
considered to be arable only through mechanization. A large-scale
public enterprise, the Agadi State Farm is expected to contribute
a considerable surplus of export and domestic crops, to provide
employment, and to create a nucleus of economic activities in a
thinly populated area. The direct control of production on the
state farm, compared with private schemes, should result in a
higher level of technical achievement. Rotational practices have
to be sound in order to avoid environmental damages; aura should
alternate with sesame, and cotton should alternate with fallow.
The state farm should undertake large-scale experiments and
trials to gain results which could also be applied to private
farms. The use of new varieties and inputs as well as the
application of modern methods of land preparation should be
tested. Through data collection, contributions should be made to
determine what alternative strategies are available to the
principle of profit maximization under conditions of high
uncertainty-for example, loss avoidance, capacity use of invested
capital equipment. etc.

Production concept

The Agadi State Farm makes up the southern part of the Agadi
West area demarcated for mechanized farming. To the north of the
farm, adjacent to it, are the Agadi West private mechanized
schemes. The farm has been allotted 210,000 feddans, not all of
which are yet cleared. It is by far the largest state farm in the
Sudan.

The development of the farm has been financed by a loan from
the Kuwait Fund for Arab Social and Economic
Development-totalling 1.6 million Kuwaiti dinars agreed upon in
1970. The loan is broken down into its constituent items in Table
18. The repayment period set was 25 years with a grace period
until 1 January 1977 for repayment of the first installment. The
rate of interest is 3 per cent per annum.

The headquarters and main camp of the farm are situated at the
edge of the village at Jebel Agadi.

There are the wooden houses and grass huts to house the farm
staff, and large steel-framed machinery sheds, stores, and
workshops. There are also two grain silos along with three others
elsewhere on the farm. and six traditional matmurrahs (storage
pits dug out of the clay soil). At the edge of the camp area is
an army post with a dozen or so soldiers whose job is to guard
the farm and the private schemes and to prevent trespassing
nomads.

Of the 21 0,000 feddans allotted to the farm, 120,000 had
already been cleared by last season (1974/75), the fourth season
of operations on the farm. This year (1975/76), the job of
clearing a further 25.000 feddans was tendered to five
contractors for manual clearing at the rate of £S 4.86 per
feddan cleared. By July 1975, however. when clearance was
supposed to have been completed, only 6,000 feddans were ready,
partly because of payment problems with the contractors. In any
year, only part of the area cleared is actually cultivated, the
rest being left fallow. The area cultivated has increased from
about 12,000 feddans in 1971/72 to about 64,000 feddans in
1974/75. For the first two seasons, only sesame and aura were
grown on the farm, but in 1973/74 American cotton was introduced
into the rotation.

a. The actual expenditures for the year 1973/74 did not
include the last month. June (for which figures are not yet
compiled). when a substantial part of payments are recorded.
Figures for expenditures in 1973/74 therefore considerably
under-estimate the actual expenditures.

Work began on establishing the farm in 1971; Table 19 compares
the actual and budgeted investment expenditures in the first
three years. The actual expenditures for 1973/74 have so far only
been compiled up to May 1974 and so the figures are said to
considerably under-estimate the actual annual expenditure. It is
evident, however, that actual disbursements have lagged well
behind the budgeted figures.

The machinery on the farm in December 1974 is listed in Table
20. Since that date, 15 more CKM4 harvesters and 35 more Leyland
tractors have been acquired in anticipation of an extra 25,000
feddans being cultivated. As this target has not been met, not
all of the extra machines are necessary. Although it is reported
that at any one time up to 15 per cent of the tractors and
combines will be under repair, the number of machines seems high
relative to the cropped area.

The farm is under the direction of the farm manager (the
present manager is a graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture,
Khartoum University, who has also received post-graduate training
abroad) responsible to the regional manager of the MFC at
Damazin. The journey to Damazin, during the dry season, takes a
little over half an hour and there is a fairly regular flow of
traffic between the farm and Damazin to maintain contact (there
is no telephone link). Assisting the manager in the direction of
the farm are three agricultural production officers (who are
young agricultural graduates) and seventeen local assistants, as
well as a resident engineer, who is assisted by two
technical-school graduates.

TABLE 20. Agadi State Farm-Machinery Available 1974/75

Type

Number

D.7 Caterpillar tractors

1

D.8 Caterpillar tractors

2

Motor graders

6

Steyr articulated lorries

2

Toyota cars

13

Toyota trucks

2

Bedford trucks

2

Austin trucks

3

Trailers

6

Wide-level disc harrows

112

Wheeled tractors (mostly
Leyland)

104

CKM4 (Russian) combine
harvesters

35

Source: University of Leeds Report, p. 30.

The planned staffing is one local assistant to each of the
5,000 feddan units into which the farm is divided, with a
graduate officer to every ten units or 50,000 feddans. The total
permanent staff including mechanics, drivers, and watchmen is
around 160. In addition, extra tractor drivers are recruited on a
seasonal basis for crop sowing and for the aura harvest, while
large numbers of casual workers are employed for weeding and
harvesting sesame and aura and for picking cotton.

The local assistants are young men with secondary education
but without professional training. They have an important
function in supervising operations on their units, where they
live with the tractor drivers and other staff in simple
accommodations during the crop season.

Production Performance

Land preparation and sowing begin with the first rains, with
sesame and cotton sown before aura. Last season. the sowing dates
for those units sown with sesame extended from 4 to 16 July. and
for cotton from 16 July to 3 August. On some units aura sowing
began as early as 21 July. but on others it continued through
till 8 September. Land preparation may involve one or two
discings according to the weed growth (and to whether the unit
was in fallow the previous season). and possibly some hand labour
to uproot bushes. Cotton seeds are broadcast by hand by men
sitting astride the wide level discs. Sesame and aura seeds are
sown mechanically using an adapted seed box. Last season 5.937
feddans were sown with the Wad Yabis (non-combinable) variety of
aura. and 42,033 feddans with the Tozi Umm Binein (combinable)
variety. The Umm Binein seed was obtained from the Tozi Seed
Propagation Centre, and the Wad Yabis was retained from the
previous season. as was the sesame seed.

The preparation and sowing period is an extremely hectic one
for the farm staff, who spend much of the time on the units
because of the difficulty in travelling around the farm after the
rains have begun. As on the private schemes, work continues at
night on a shift basis.

Weeding is done manually, with cotton being weeded twice. The
Umm Binein variety of aura is said to to need little weeding
because of the relatively high seed rate applied. 1 6 rotls (a
rotl is approximately a pound) as compared with 4 for Wad Yabis.
The labour for weeding either comes from the villages in the
immediate area or else from the Kurmuk and Geissan areas further
south.

The 1974 cotton crop was sprayed by air with Endosulfan at the
rate of 1 gallon per 4 feddans.

The cost of application was £S 0.30 per feddan (each
time)-11,1 30 feddans were sown with cotton- and the total cost
of the operation, including the cost of the chemicals. appears in
the accounts as £S 1 3,220. In addition, part of the aura crop
was also sprayed, at a total cost of £S 1,01 5.

Sesame is cut and threshed by hand, with harvesting beginning
in early November. Cotton picking begins around 1 December. Once
again, the labour supply for the sesame harvest is partly local
but mainly from the Kurmuk and Geissan districts. The cotton
pickers (1,880 were employed at the peak of the 1974/75 season)
are drawn mainly from the area around Tendelti in Kordofan, about
400 km distant. The farm, like many of the private schemes. sends
lorries to the labour source areas. It is interesting to note
that these workers found picking on the state farm more
remunerative than in the Gezira. For cotton picking. the workers
bring their families and all work in the fields. whereas for the
other operations the work force is an entirely male one. The
rates paid for weeding the 1974/75 crops varied from about 40 pts
(piastres) per feddan for sesame, between 40 and 50 pts for aura,
to about 75 pts per feddan for each weeding of the cotton crop.
For sesame cutting. the rate was between 50 pts and 80 pts per
hilla with usually 4 to 5 hillas per feddan. The sesame was
threshed at 25 pts per sack.

The rate paid for picking cotton was 45 pts per small kantar,
with an extra payment for filling the sacks. In addition to their
cash remuneration. all casual workers are provided with food
(aura, oil, fish, etc.) and simple huts for accommodation. The
rates were in line with those on the private schemes.

The aura harvest begins in January and continues till March.
The Wad Yabis aura variety was cut by hand in 1975, but so were
several thousand feddans of the combinable Umm Binein variety.
All the aura is threshed by combine harvester.

Table 21 shows the areas sown with the different crops since
the farm was opened, together with production and computed yields
per feddan. Considerable variation in the year-to-year yields of
all the crops is apparent.

The state farm revenue is derived mainly from crop sales but
in 1974 included additional income from contract harvesting.
After the farm aura harvesting was completed, combines were sent
to the Gezira for the wheat harvest and earned an additional
revenue of £S 49,000 for the farm.

Details of aura crop sales for the 1974/75 season are given in
Table 22. More than half the crop was sold by tender to a
Khartoum merchant at a price of £S 2.31 a sack by the farm. This
is relatively low compared with prices obtained on the adjacent
private schemes as recorded in the survey, but probably reflects
the predominance of combinable varieties. The sesame crop was
also sold by tender at £S 5.50 per kantar, producing a revenue
of £S 72,534. Total revenue from aura sales stood at £S
366,288.

Details of expenditure during the whole of the 1974/ 75
financial year are not available for the completion of this
report, but figures have been obtained for the expenditures in
the period from July 1974 to March 1975 inclusive. These include
much of the farm expenditure but are of course incomplete and
therefore of relatively little value, although it is of interest
to examine their composition. The main items are staff salaries
and allowances, making up 14 per cent of the partial total; wages
and food to seasonal labour, 37 per cent: machinery, 23 per cent:
and cars, 16 per cent. This leaves 10 per cent for seeds, sprays,
and sundries. The high percentage of costs on cars reflects the
large amount of travelling involved in running such a large farm.

Conclusions

The performance of the Agadi State Farm can be rated above the
average of the adjacent private schemes. The large input of
investment and qualified staff made it possible to follow modern
management systems. yielding 322 kg per feddan of aura, 144 kg of
sesame, and 181 kg of cotton. The farm made substantial profits
during the last years, but the question of the permanence of crop
production cannot be answered so far. The observation of more
years with different rain-fall quantities and patterns is
necessary to estimate the average yield potential of the area.
farming practices being unchanged.

Recruitment and the management of a large number of seasonal
labourers presents considerable difficulties. and with access to
governmental funds, the incentive is high to mechanize production
as fully as possible: capital invested per feddan is higher than
on private schemes. This has to be counted as a cost to the
economy against the benefits the country receives from the export
of cotton because nearly all of the capital investment and oil
has to be bought with foreign currency.